North Korea tensions since Trump took office

North Korea tensions since Trump took office

Here's how events have unfolded between the US and North Korea since Donald Trump's inauguration.

Dec. 2, 2017: North Korea's Foreign Ministry said President Trump and his administration are "begging for nuclear war." In a written statement, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Trump is "staging an extremely dangerous nuclear gamble on the Korean peninsula" and called the president a "nuclear demon" and a "disruptor of global peace."

Nov. 29, 2017: North Korea claimed to have successfully tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile which is capable of striking the U.S. mainland, CNN reported the country's state media said.

Nov. 17, 2017: A senior Chinese diplomat will travel to North Korea as a "special envoy" of Chinese president Xi Jinping amid growing pressure on Pyongyang to curtail its nuclear and missile program.The move comes after President Donald Trump wrapped up his 13-day Asia trip, where he called for more diplomatic measures to be applied to North Korea, singling out China to do more.

Oct. 1, 2017: The president again mocked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (pictured) should not bother trying to negotiate with him in an effort to stop the country's development of nuclear weapons.

Sept. 22, 2017: President Donald Trump called North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a "madman." The threatening message came hours after the rogue nation's foreign minister said that North Korea could test a powerful nuclear weapon over the Pacific Ocean in response to Trump's threats of military action.

Sept. 19, 2017: President Donald Trump warned during his first address to the United Nations General Assembly that the US would "totally destroy North Korea" if forced to defend itself or its allies.

Sept. 15, 2017: In a major show of defiance to the international community, North Korea fired yet another ballistic missile over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.The launch was the second to fly over Japan in less than a month, and the first since North Korea's sixth nuclear test and new United Nations sanctions on the country.

Sept. 11, 2017: The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a US-drafted resolution to impose new sanctions on North Korea. The resolution is designed to accomplish six major goals: cap North Korea's oil imports, ban textile exports, end additional overseas laborer contracts, suppress smuggling efforts, stop joint ventures with other nations and sanction designated North Korean government entities.

Sept. 7, 2017: South Korea says it expects another North Korea intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch "on September 9," according to the country's prime minister.

Trump condemned North Korea's claimed Sept. 3, 2017, test of a hydrogen bomb in a series of tweets that morning, calling Pyongyang's words and actions "hostile and dangerous" and saying "talk of appeasement will not work."

Sept. 1, 2017: Americans are now banned from traveling to North Korea over safety concerns, according to the Trump administration. U.S. citizens were warned not to travel to the rogue country but until now were not banned from it.

Newly released photos appear to reveal unexpected advances in North Korea's missile program, experts say, including a previously unseen type of projectile.On Wednesday, August 23, 2017, North Korean state media KCNA announced leader Kim Jong Un had visited the country's Chemical Material Institute of the Academy of Defense Sciences.

Aug. 9, 2017: North Korea claims to have a plan to fire four missiles near the US Pacific territory of Guam, and that it will be ready for Kim Jong Un's consideration in days. Analysis says the missiles would take 14 minutes to reach their target, and that U.S. defense systems would not be 100 percent failsafe.

Aug. 8, 2017: President Donald Trump threatens North Korea with "fire and fury like the world has never seen." The rhetoric is criticized by lawmakers as falling in line more with Kim Jong Un's strategy than past presidents of the United States.

Aug. 5, 2017: The U.N. Security Council passes a resolution imposing new sanctions on North Korea for its continued missile testing and violations of UN resolutions. The sanctions will slash North Korea's annual export revenue of $3 billion by more than a third, according to a statement from the office of Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations.

Aug. 2, 2017: After North Korea conducts numerous intercontinental missile tests, the U.S. launches one of its own. The U.S. military the test launch was not in response to any potential North Korean provocation.

June 2017: Otto Warmbier, detained in North Korea for over year, is released back to his family in the U.S., but comes home in a coma. His family says it doesn't believe North Korea's claim that Warmbier went into a coma after taking a sleeping pill. U.S. doctors say Warmbier had suffered a "severe neurological injury."

Warmbier soon dies after returning home. North Korea claims his death is "a mystery to us."

In April 2017, Tony Kim -- also known as Kim Sang Duk -- was detained for "hostile acts" toward the North Korean regime. He was teaching at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, a statement from the school said.

April 26: Trump schedules a full congressional briefing on the North Korea situation. On the same day, it's announced the THAAD system is expected to soon be operational on the Korean peninsula.

US Vice President Mike Pence, visiting the South Korean side of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) on April 17, warned North Korea not to test the resolve of the US "or the strength of our military forces."

April 10, 2017: North Korea issues a forceful response to the deployment of a US naval strike group, including the 97,000-ton carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, to the region, saying it would counter "reckless acts of aggression" with "whatever methods the US wants to take."

Trump says on April 2 that the US would be willing to go it alone to restrain North Korea's nuclear weapons program should China fail to change the situation.

March 6, 2017: North Korea fired four ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan (also known as the East Sea) in what Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe described as "an extremely dangerous action." The missiles, three of which landed within 200 miles of Japan's coastline in its exclusive economic zone, were fired as part of a drill targeting American military assets in Japan by North Korea's Hwasong artillery units, North Korean state media KCNA said.

Feb. 2, 2017: Secretary of Defense James Mattis landed at the Osan Air Base outside Seoul. At the top of the agenda for this Asia trip was a key component of South Korea's defenses against its northern neighbors' aggression -- the THAAD missile interception system.

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